A little Kiss goes a long way with this band

When they say "there are no small roles, only small actors," they aren't referring to short thespians--though throughout history "little people" have been relegated to small roles: They are typically the leprechaun at the parade or the elf in a Christmas musical.

On film, the roles can best be summed up by movies like "For Your Height Only," a bad, 1979 spy/martial arts spoof featuring a pint-sized James Bond.

Joey Fatale was a little tired of all that.

At 4-foot-4, he wanted to put his talents to better use. Halloween 1998, he started MiniKiss at a nightclub in New York City. The place went crazy for MiniKiss, which for the most part has been an elaborate karaoke act up to this point, but one the band takes seriously.

The band is playing at Joe's on Weed Street on Saturday and will appear Monday on "WGN Morning News." Fatale says they are evolving--they hope to sing and play instruments, but the transition has been slow.

Fatale is an accomplished drummer and has had a passion for music for as long as he could remember. "One day I picked up [drum] sticks, listened to Kiss and just started banging away on the floor," Fatale told me.

The key to success is being prepared when the right opportunity comes along.

"I was in my early teens, and there was a band; there was an open-mic night, and they asked me to fill in. I performed, and after the show a guy said, 'When I saw you, I said poor little guy. What can he do in life? I just wanted to tell you--you're amazing.' "

But even in the world of little people entertainment, show business can get ugly. It is one thing to copy Kiss, but to copy a band that's copying Kiss? The L.A. Times reported earlier this month that Fatale tried to confront a rival band leader, "Little" Tim Loomis of Tiny Kiss, for ripping off his idea.

"We've been around eight years. We're doing something right. I've always said I hope to open the door for other little people," said Fatale, who takes on the Gene Simmons costume, and plays a little bass in real life.

More humble words have never flowed from such a long, bloody tongue. It is a great position to take. Because there were many who paved the way for Fatale.

Meinhardt Raabe played the Munchkin coroner in "The Wizard of Oz" and, at 89, is the oldest surviving Munchkin. When he was a boy in the early '20s, his lack of growth was a mystery, he writes in his book "Memories of a Munchkin." He had never heard the word "midget" until he was 17, when he took a trip from the family farm in Wisconsin to the Chicago World's Fair Midget Village in 1933. A man puffing a cigar asked if he was looking for a job.

"I was stunned by his instant acceptance. Someone was actually interested in me because I was small," he wrote.

He eventually took a job in the village, but only as a way to pay for college. Many of those little people, which is the preferred term, ended up as Munchkins. Raabe said the production was the first opportunity for little people to "act independently as people, not freaks."

People can find lots of reasons to stare at other people, or make fun of others; and we all find excuses to fail. While Fatale certainly had some advantages that Raabe never had in the 1920s, both developed talent at a young age and refused to let their short stature keep them from walking tall.